I believe Spring Is Hear

[QM3steve]

Cooler's washable. The beer just gets a fast cold. It worked for me and dropped the beer from shelf temperature to...well...freezing in less than 5 min. I figure less salt will be the trick next time.

Sub zero? Chilly. Just cold enough for a jacket but not a parka.

It's 48 deg. now

[Seascamp]

Ice cream, the old ice cream churn employs the same rock salt process. The salt lowers the freezing point of water, the water then becomes the same temperature as the ice, which, in turn, greatly increasing the cold contact area around the metal ice cream cylinder. Tiz the same principle with a cooler or keger, I reckon.
Jeezzz, I haven?t seen an ice cream churn for years but the old ones had a hand crank - gear set on top and the cylinder mechanism was attached to a wooden ice n? salt bucket.

Scamp

[QM3steve]

Sea, the same theory exactly. "Tiz" the reason I used that method. It just happened to cross the freeze zone.

That ice cream tasted better than the stuff you make with the electric motor. I remember going down to the river to get the ice for it, then crankin' 'till you couldn't go any longer. The old wooden ice cream bucket with the tin canister and cast crank. The effort made it taste better.

[39mto39g]

You guys are missing a important point, Yes the salt ice gets colder but unless you are going to drink the cooler of beer quick, The cooler of beer will freeze, and the keg wont freeze, it just gets cold.
Ron

[Jerry D]

How many remember setting on top of the crank while a relative cranked the Ice Cream churn as a kid? talk about staying cool on a summer afternoon Brrrrr living on a farm with Cows and chickens we had Hand cranked Ice Cream in the winter with ice from the ponds. Except for the vannilla, sugar and salt Ice cream was just about free in the winter when I was growing up in Missouri.

[Seascamp]

Agreed Ron, there are throughput and/or number of participant issues with the cooler ice n? salt technique. However, for those of us who like to tempt tongue frost bite, a few beers in a small cooler with ice n? salt is the way to go, like Steve said. I really like the cold beer bite so it?s worth the frost bite risk. Our local brand is ?Moose Drool?, a full 'octane' beer, but hardly palatable when not properly iced.

Lucky man Jerry, you got to ride. I just remember cranking and cranking.

Scamp

[QM3steve]

Volume, pressure and surface area. An unopened beer will go below the freezing point for a short time. Once you open it instantly turns to slush. There's a fine temperature line that it crossed when you can actually see the ice in the bottle.

There are 15 gallons of beer in the a 1/2 keg (american). That's a lot to cool down below freezing in a short time. The average 12 oz. beers you can get from a 1/2 keg(american) is 204 leaving a 1/2" head. A single 12 oz. beer has little chance of not freezing, being completely surronded by 25 deg. ice and water.

Ahhh, just makes me want to BBQ and have one right now. One foot on the ice cream crank, Budweiser in one hand and the BBQ fork in the other. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

[39mto39g]

Moose Drool and Butt whiper. Something very wrong with both of you.
And then there is "setting on top of the crank"
Ron

[Keith_Hixson]

I'm listening for Spring also. Robins, Ospreys and other birds will return. Geese and ducks fly north overhead. Yep, I'm listening for Spring also.

Keith

[QM3steve]

Keith,
He doesn't have spillcheck.